In a Subway Station by Ezra Pound Before this week, I had never read any poetry by Ezra Pound. I noticed right away that many of the poems are very short. “In a subway station,” for example, is two lines. In the essay “Imagism,” the second rule of imagistes is said to be “to use absolutely no words that do not contribute to the presentation.” I think this rule helps explain why some of Pound's poems are so short. Obeying the second rule of the imagistes will be all the more difficult the longer the poem is. This rule, however, does not seem to me to be a rule only of the imagistes, but of the majority of poets of all ages. I don't think you can find many poets who would say they try to use superfluous words. Just because a poem is longer than a few lines doesn't mean the poet is verbose. I think the vast majority of poets would say they only use the necessary words in their poetry. Of course, you could also say that words that seem superfluous actually "contribute to the presentation." I have a hard time letting Pound claim this rule as just one of the imagistes. Aside from its length, "In a Station of the Metro" was a poem I read with interest because it is on the syllabus as one of the poems to read. carefully. I thought it was strange that I had to pay attention to this poem. In truth, it initially struck me as the kind of poetry I tried to write in elementary school. Not that I ever wrote anything interesting, but the brevity of the poem and the juxtaposition of two very different images was pretty much the basis of my poetry as a child. I thought randomness made poems profound. The title of this poem is very important as it places the reader in the subway station. While the titles of poems and books are always important, this poem would be lost without its title. The title makes us understand that "the appearance of these faces in the crowd" occurs in the subway station, not in the stadium, in the shopping center or in any other crowded place. By positioning the reader with the title, the poem lets the reader know that the first image of the poem, the "faces in the crowd," is something that belongs to the speaker's position..